This invention relates to sighting devices for weapon systems and more particularly to laser-assisted sights for bore-sighted weapons.
Heretofore, weapon sights have consisted of primarily straight optical telescopic sights with crosshairs. Recently there have also been some telescopic weapon sights that do use lasers. However, the use of a telescopic aiming device combined with a laser aiming spot as a weapon sight has been very limited. Such units have required complex optics, expensive lasers and bulky battery packs. Also, constant servicing was required to keep the optics aligned and the lasers functioning. Thus, every day usage was impractical and very limited.
The prior art includes some weapon sights that do use lasers, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,266,873 by Hacskaylo, et al., 3,464,770 by Schmidt, 3,803,399 by Smith, et al., and 3,867,764 by Dunmire, et al.
In Hacskaylo an infrared light source is directed by movable mirrors through sighting optics along a portion of the optical axis. In Schmidt a weapon sight has a laser range finder in which the laser beam is passed through its own set of lenses and directed to the target. Smith shows a target illuminator using a separate mountable laser. In Dunmire a separate aiming light is connected to a weapon sight for illuminating the target. Although these aforereferenced patents teach the use of lasers in conjunction with weapon sights, a major problem is that none of the weapon sights makes the axis of the optical sight truly collinear with the axis of the emitted laser beam so as to eliminate parallax between the two beams or provides inherent bore-sight stability.
In the present invention, a solid, fixed-mount rhomb lens assembly centered inside a housing behind the objective lens eliminates the parallax problem between the scope optics and the emitted laser beam. The effect of this novel feature is to insure a precise predictable point of impact when firing at a target. Moreover, this sight assembly method allows various light sources to be used, such as a HeNe laser, a laser diode, or light emitting diode ("LED").
The present weapon sight also allows a simple, precise sighting alignment for bore-sighting the weapon. The sighting telescope is aligned to the laser spot be means of reticle adjustments on the telescope. This can be accomplished by visual alignment against a suitable target or using optical instrumentation. The laser-telescope assembly is then bore-sighted to the weapon or other device. In the case of a weapon, a round is fired at a target located at the range designed for bore-sight (usually determined by the balistics of the weapon). The laser-telescope assembly is then bore-sighted to the point of impact by means of standard mounts which provide azimuth and elevation adjustment for the assembly. Bore-sighting to different ranges requires a simple elevation adjustment of the mount, so that the laser-telescope alignment does not need to be changed.